Since the inception of tea
industry in North Bengal during the colonial period, women have had an
overwhelming presence in this industry in comparison to their overall work
participation rates in the state. But their lives and experiences have not
received adequate attention in the Indian plantation labour historiography.
Using various conventional and non-conventional sources of data, this paper
makes an attempt to trace the historical past of the women tea plantation
workers of North Bengal, taking into account the hitherto neglected aspects
of gendered nature of labour recruitment, migration, labour control
practices and so on, through the intermeshing of race, class, ethnicity and
sexuality of the actors involved in the process. The paper concludes that
some of the convincing reasons behind the marginalisation of women workforce
in the tea industry of North Bengal during contemporary times have their
roots in the various systems and practices of the colonial past.